2 Broke Girls: Kat Dennings Talks About Her New Sitcom

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The Thor star discusses her new CBS series.

By Eric Goldman

Kat Dennings is coming to TV this fall, teaming with Beth Behrs for 2 Broke Girls, a new CBS sitcom from Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) and comedian Whitney Cummings. In the series, Dennings' Max has never had any money, while Behrs' Caroline came from a wealthy family that have now lost everything, after her father was involved in a huge scandal. Working together as waitresses, the two formulate a plan on how to eventually start their own company.

The cast and creators spoke at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, and Dennings was asked why she would move to TV, even while her movie career was going well. Dennings nodded, saying, "Things were picking up and I was getting really exciting things - Thor was coming out and I was getting interesting projects."

Kat Dennings in 2 Broke Girls

That being said, Dennings also noted she had done a lot of small, independent films and often when they were released, "These things just disappear. Four months of your life never get seen." She added, "This came right at the right time. I'd just finished the most intense job of my life," referencing her upcoming film, Renee. She said she was wondering, "What do I do now? I want to do something where people will definitely see it," simply because, "I want people to appreciate it." While she hadn't thought about doing TV, she said she was quickly interested when approached by Cummings and King, noting, "Michael gave me my first job, it almost seemed like a gift. It was the perfect thing."

That first job was an episode of Sex and the City, which Dennings recalled filming when she was 14, in which she played, in her words, "The blowjob bar mitzvah girl." Things got highly amusing and bawdy when Dennings talked about her somewhat sheltered, home-schooled life growing up and that she even remembered asking Kim Cattrall what a blowjob was when filming Sex and the City - at which point Cummings couldn't resist asking if Cattrall also showed Dennings what it was. When Dennings remarked that she could relate to her 2 Broke Girls character, because, "We didn't have any money when I was growing up," and that she wasn't even allowed to watch TV, Cummings retorted, "But you were allowed to give blowjobs on Sex and the City!"

King came up with the kernel of the idea for 2 Broke Girls, but then asked Cummings to help him develop it, saying, "I really wanted everything that she has" and that "It was really important to both Whitney and I that we had jokes that made people laugh." Cracked Cummings, "Thank you Diablo Cody for being unavailable!"

Dennings and Beth Behrs in 2 Broke Girls

Cummings noted that 2 Broke Girls was coming at a time when the economy has taken a hit and that there was "Something really relatable, because all of us having been going through something like that." King said he wanted to have a show that was very different from others on TV, including Sex and the City, where rent was "never an issue." Cummings said they wanted to avoid doing the thing where their characters, "work in a coffee shop and live in a huge New York brownstone."

Cummings is starring in her own new NBC sitcom this fall, called Whitney, and is not available to work on 2 Broke Girls on a daily basis, but King said she'd been integral in crafting the show, remarking, "Whitney was the architect of the show and now we're in the house."

Some of the jokes in 2 Broke Girls are fairly edgy – one critic at the panel seemed particularly offended by one about Stephen Hawking. However, King said, "Our job is to make people laugh and be surprised. We don't go for a joke for shock value, we go for it for the situation." He said that both the writers themselves and Dennings character Max may go too far sometimes, noting, "And maybe that's a story!" He added, "We have no idea what the edge is at [for this series], because we're just figuring out the middle."